Ma

Octavia Spencer does crazy creepy very well and very unnervingly, but unfortunately her performance was the only thing good about this not-even B-grade (C-grade?) horror camp-edy although I am sure it was marketed as more of a psychological thriller. It had laugh out loud moments but more due to the unintentional hilarity of bad script and bad acting, rather than genuine comedy. Its premise had so much potential but it was squandered away on a pedestrian, generic, utterly predictable plot. In spirit, it had similarities to 2016's Don't Breathe, but whereas that film subverted expectations, Ma's director Tate Taylor and writer Scotty Landes lacked the courage to even dip their toes in that pool.

As aforesaid, Spencer was great. She really owned the film and the screen, but as an executive producer, she should really have pushed for her character to go beyond. We have faith in her to do that and at least then the film might have been more interesting.

Diana Silvers led the cast of teenagers and she was mildly interesting, but was much better and interesting in Booksmart. 

As for the rest of the teenage cast, there were moment whereby it seemed that the film might subvert the generic roles as expected, i.e. the jock, the bitch, the cute/nice boy and the joker, but alas, Ma ain't no The Cabin in the Woods and Taylor/Landes did not have the balls to do that.

The adult cast, other than Spencer, were generally adequate. Yes, even Allison Janney. Juliette Lewis did her best but has yet to recapture the glory of her Cape Fear days; Luke Evans, getting ubiquitous these days but may need to be more selective in his roles, was uninteresting; at least Missi Pyle just camped it up unabashedly.

Like I said, this film had so much potential. A Josh Whedon/Drew Goddard version of this might have been great, but sadly we only have Spencer's creep-tastic performance to reminiscence on.

Booksmart

A fun and funny, familiar yet fresh, raunchy but not rude, end-of-high-school buddy comedy that was well-paced and competently directed by first-time director Olivia Wilde albeit a tad over-tropey and predictable. 

Nonetheless, the excellent and natural chemistry of the two leads, Beanie Feldstein (who almost stole the show from Saoirse Ronan as the best friend in “Lady Bird”) and Kaitlyn Dever (an electric mix of a young Juno-esque Ellen Page and an Amy Pond-era Karen Gillan), drove the story and helped immensely to accelerate through the dull bits especially in the weaker second act. 

The film started strong but once the narrative got going, Wilde and her team of all-female writers seemed to have gotten lost in executing and obviously subverting the patriarchal tropism of the genre, which then, ironically, made those moments became less smart and just a bit more annoyingly preachy. 

Luckily, they all managed to craft a deserving final act; through the 105 minutes there were some chuckles but the genuinely good laughs came at the end which really helped to salvage the film. 

As a director, Wilde has potential. Just based on this film, she may be more suited to television storytelling than movie. She can tell a good story but seemed to lack originality and a personal vision. 

“Booksmart” was a fun, feel-good film that will likely find a bigger audience on streaming than in cinemas, although its actresses Feldstein and Dever are due for their breakouts.

Toy Story 4

Even Pixar could not escape sequel/franchise fatigue, and although “Toy Story 4” was lots of fun - it had the usual laughs, action, heart and moral - but beneath all that beautiful, slightly unoriginal, storytelling laid a sense of fatigue and impatience especially for those of us who had been following the adventures of Woody, Buzz and gang for the past 24 (!) years. 

We are all now older but it seemed that the story never really grew any more older after that fitting end in “Toy Story 3” 9 years ago. This felt more like an attempt to relaunch the franchise for a new generation rather than a continuation for the original Andys (and Mollys). 

Nonetheless, this was a fun and absorbing film, maybe a little less heartbreaking/heartwarming, a little less exciting and a less laugh out loud, but like the previous three entries, it introduced new characters to the universe without ever feeling overcrowded, although the adventures of Rex and Ham were missed. But Tony Hale’s Forky was a delight, Christina Hendricks’ Gabby Gabby was sympathetically scary and Keanu Reeves’ was very Keanu -esque. Annie Potts’ Bo Peep has been missed and gotten a whole new image fittingly in-line with Disney’s new girl power princess movement. Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key’s wisecracking Bunny and Duckie were thankfully restrained to a minimum, although they did get a great mid-credits scene. 

And stay till the very, very end for a little funny Easter egg.

Yesterday

Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis did a Magical Realism rom-com and result was a shiny, glossy, well-produced, excruciatingly Boyle-esque film that was shallow and empty with a pair of incompatible and boringly flat lead characters.

It coasted on the infectious nostalgia of The Beatles and with Kate McKinnon as the only other saving grace. And really, why Ed Sheeran?! Nothing against him or his songs (love them!) but he ain’t really an actor and to be featured in such a prominent role, it just felt extremely distracting. 

Although nothing was more distracting then the absolute lack of chemistry between Lily James and Himesh Patel. It was so hard to buy into their love story when we can barely believe that they are friends, much less lovers. James, we know, has talent but it barely shone here; and this was not a great introduction for Patel. 

This film had a great concept but the whole story seemed to only exist for one quintessentially Curtis piece of dialogue, but sadly the words were great but not the situation nor the delivery. 

For a better use of The Beatles’ catalogue, go watch Julie Taymor’s trippy “Across the Universe” which had a more believable central love story between Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess.

Wild Rose

A feel-good, charming little film about dreams, life, responsibility, home, passion, family, friendships and country music. Uplifting and touching, this film was three acts and the truth with a star-cementing performance by Jessie Buckley (or star-making, if you didn’t catch her in the Tom Hardy series “Taboo”). 

Buckley was raw and passionate and honest, and the choices her character made was as hard to watch as it was satisfyingly resolved. Her journey was not easy, and us the audience was brought along for the ride, but the payoff was worth it.

Great direction by Tom Harper with a simple yet beautifully honest screenplay by Nicole Taylor. 

Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo were both also phenomenal. Okonedo brought a sincere warmth and humanity to an otherwise possibly bland and idealistic character; and Walters totally nailed the emotional challenge of a parent and she really delivered in that final scene. 

That epilogue...what a great bookend! Country music is really my guilty pleasure.

Parasite 기생충

For 2 years in a row, the Palme d’Or has gone to two fascinating, socially-relevant, Asian family drama. “Parasite”, like last year’s “Shoplifters”, was an utterly riveting and emotionally-poignant film. It was smartly written and sharply directed by writer/director Bong Joon-ho and can be best described as a black comedic, scathing social satire/family drama. 

The story started out simple enough but it constantly surprises and zigs instead of the expected zags, and the emotional weight crept stealthily just beyond until it hits like a ton of rocks! The third act was not where one would expect the first act to end up. 

All the while, Bong peppered the story with genuine warmth, tightly tense moments and laughs - big laughs; like really big, laugh out loud moments. 

Only perhaps the epilogue was a bit too on the nose but then again, it would not be surprising if even that goes over the general audience. 

The whole cast was fabulous, from the main family to the supporting characters. Not one person felt extraneous or made to perform beyond their capability. 

This film was Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” and “Us” brought to a higher, smarter, tighter level; scathing social commentary that entertained but yet capable of making the audience uncomfortable without appearing overly preachy or didactic. 

The whole tone of the film tethered along this fine wire of drama, comedy and bleak social commentary with an unyielding, constant feeling of unexpectedness and unnerving tension.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

A fun, entertaining, easy-watching film that inevitably felt like a MCU-lite entry. Like the first film, it definitely felt more younger-skewing than the main MCU films, but also at times felt less a superhero film than a teenage, road trip comedy romp. 

The world-threatening and personal, emotional stakes felt low and empty throughout the film, especially since Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio’s introduction to the MCU was such a bungled effort. There was, distractingly, a constant sense that this film failed to live up to its potential given that fans would know what Mysterio is capable of which thus kind of negate the whole purpose of Act One; also by introducing Mysterio as from an - spoiler - alternate universe right after we had the phenomenal “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” but then not exploring that felt like a great big lie and cheat. 

Thankfully Tom Holland and Zendaya are still insanely charismatic and fit their characters to a tee. However, it was a pity that the Holland-Jacob Batalon bromance - a highlight of the first film - got shortchanged this time round. 

Gyllenhaal was wide-eyed, crazed and wasted, and Samuel L Jackson and Cobie Smulders obviously had contractual obligations. 

Stay all the way to the end. The mid- and post-credits were more exciting than the 2 hours before that, and effectively set up the next Spider-Man film and the MCU saga.

The Lion King

This was my third favourite iteration of the beloved, original classic. 

First, of course, is the 1994 original, then the Julie Taylor-directed 1997 musical spectacle, and lastly this 2019 CGI version. 

Technically, the almost-photorealistic, VR/AR and mo-cap technology used here were astounding, but aesthetically, it was highly distracting with its glaring artificiality (for one Pride Rock and the surrounds have absolutely no wind or even a slight breeze?!); emotionally, the near 2-hours film was empty and soul-less, and rode along the goodwill coattails and nostalgic fondness of the original and/or the musical.

There were beautiful still shots interspersed throughout but the obvious directorial choices by Jon Favreau to absolutely minimise showing the animals directly speaking to the camera was annoying, frustrating, distracting and ultimately led to its emotional and dramatic emptiness. 

Narratively, this 2019 film was an amalgamation of the 1994 original and the 1997 musical with some new, original moments (and musical interludes) in this film. The new stuffs mostly worked, especially when it pertained to Pumbaa and Timon, but it also only served to remind how much better the original, traditionally-drawn animation was. 

The less than convincing voice acting by most of the cast, save the indomitable James Earl Jones (reprising his magnificent Musfasa), Chiwetel Ejiofor (adeptly and menacingly taking over from Jeremy Irons), John Oliver (nailed Rowan Atkinson’s hilarious Zazu), Florence Kasumba (scarily terrifying as Shenzi and nowhere as darkly comedic as Whoopi Goldberg), and Billy Eichner and Seth Rogan (Timon and Pumbaa effectively stole their scenes again and effortlessly brought the most laughs), did not help the film at all. 

Musically, the new score by Hans Zimmer was effective but not really memorable; better were the Lebo M’s musical-inspired tracks. 

Elton John’s and Tim Rice’s songs have also been rearranged and it mostly, kind of worked, although - hate to say this - Beyoncé butchered “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and her new song “Spirit” was out of place both tonally and narratively. Also, the new John and Rice song at the end credits failed to excite. 

This film had so much going for it, especially after Favreau’s success with “The Jungle Book”, but as much as technology has advanced it will still take a lot more years to do perfect a live-action remake of talking, singing and emotionally-resounding animals. 

Now, we dread and await The Little Mermaid and hopefully, James Cameron’s Avatar saga will save the genre.